Archives - Page 5

  • Civil Service: access to information, transparency, accountability and social responsibility
    No. 62-63 (2012)

    The globalization process has brought about a change of paradigms in different social, economic and political aspects in general. In particular, public administration has undergone transformations in the state apparatus and in management, constituting an agenda more oriented to the improvement of services, with great emphasis on the effectiveness of public policies, on the strengthening of the civil service, on the democratization of the governmental apparatus, with the objective of consolidating true citizenship.

    The legacy of the Public Administration of previous years contrasts with the administrative reforms that took place recently to implement a new public management. Thus, with the democratization of public management, a greater control of the government's activities by the citizenry emerges, i.e., accountability becomes an obligation of the government. Likewise, the governing authorities are required to be transparent in their processes, which must be visible by disclosing both data on governmental activities and information concerning the individuals who hold different positions in government. 

    This new action is what is known as open government, which with the support of new information and communication technologies and appropriate regulations for access to information, has brought public management closer to citizen participation and the streamlining of processes for the delivery of goods and services to society. The issue of electronic government has positioned itself as one of the great advances within the public function, promoting the development of a society linked to the management of both information and knowledge, in an inclusive and comprehensive manner.

    Social networks are also an important part of this updating process in public administration, because they are the means by which there is a fluid communication, receiving queries and responses, combining the notification of progress, and calls for citizen participation, bringing the administrative government link with civil society, promoting responsible actions in the proper management of resources and the proper implementation of public policies, always in favor of the development and welfare of the population.

    ICAP as an institution at the service of the Region and in accordance with its Strategic Plan 2011-2015, presents in these issues the theme "Public Function: access to information, transparency, accountability and social responsibility", exposing different texts of experts who base their experience to exemplify the progress and challenges presented by the reality of the Region.

     

  • Good Public Management Practices
    No. 60-61 (2011)

    These countries have created the first phase of the "National Awards for Quality and Promising Practices", using different models of excellence, mainly the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the Malcom Baldrige. The Dominican Republic and Guatemala use the former, and Costa Rica and El Salvador use the latter.

    These awards are granted in the Dominican Republic by the Ministry of Public Administration, MAP, since 2005; in Costa Rica in 2010, by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, MIDEPLAN, and the General Directorate of Civil Service, DGSC, of Costa Rica, a joint initiative of both institutions; El Salvador's Secretariat for Strategic Affairs launched its Award in 2010, and in 2011 in Guatemala, coordinated by the National Civil Service Office, ONSEC, a product of the Inter-Institutional Committee made up of the Secretariat of Planning and Programming of the Presidency, SEGEPLAN, the Ministry of Public Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the National Institute of Public Administration, INAP.

    ICAP, as Technical Secretariat of the Forum, and within the framework of its "Quality Management Strategy 2011-2014", dedicates these issues to the topic of "Good Practices in Quality Management", presenting documented systematizations both for the aforementioned awards, and for the application of management systems in this area, joining efforts through the MAP of the Dominican Republic and MIDEPLAN-DGSC of Costa Rica, with the institutions that received the National Quality and Promising Practices Awards, with the aim of making them benchmarks in this area in the Region.

  • Civil Service: Quality and Innovation in Public Administration
    No. 58-59 (2010)

    The dynamic environment of government administration, the modernization of public management and the improvement of the governance of its institutions, constitute a continuous challenge, and should be a priority for political and public managers, combining new practices that pursue effectiveness, with the promotion and guarantee of the principles and values of public service.

    In this sense, the Public Administrations of the Region are making efforts to promote a transforming culture with the adoption of strategies for quality, innovation, rationalization and improvement of public management, to fully meet the needs and expectations of citizens with justice, equity, objectivity and efficiency in the use of public resources.

    Both quality and innovation in public management promote change and the formulation of creative improvement solutions. Learning and innovation are determinants for increasing quality and sustainability in the fulfillment of the objectives of public administration. Continuous improvement and innovation facilitate the development of new services, processes and public benefits, as well as their rationalization, simplification and standardization, thus increasing the credibility and trust of citizens in government.

    Quality public management implies a public function with observance of public values, oriented by the vocation of public service, proficiency, honesty, good faith and mutual trust, solidarity and social co-responsibility, respect for people, scrupulousness in the management of public resources, and the preeminence of the public interest over the private one.

    On the other hand, it must be capable of rebuilding public administration, redefining its functions and its form of action, increasing the capacity of state management (governance), through strategic professionalization, strengthening of management instruments and the improvement and performance in the elaboration and implementation of public policies. In addition, it must rely on a body of public servants with knowledge and experience, the main and very valuable capital of the Public Administration, whose contributions are embodied in initiatives for the continuous improvement of quality in public management.

    Consequently, quality and innovation in public management are oriented to good governance. Their application is a matter of intelligence to face specific problems and to use the appropriate tools to meet the transformation needs of the administrative apparatus, as a result of the demands of the citizens, which in turn, legitimizes the activity of the public sector.

  • Modern trends in New Public Management
    No. 56-57 (2009)

    Starting in the 1980s, the issue of state reform became a central aspect of the world agenda, giving rise to a new economic, market-oriented wave, the predominant result of which was a more managerial current of government administration. This movement was accompanied by a wave of democratization in terms of breadth, geographical extension and durability; by a process of liberalization guided by economic openness, the institutionalization of the New Public Management, NPM, and the integration of the world economy.

    The NPM transformation trend rearticulates State-Society relations, offering not only the opportunity for the modernization of the State apparatus, but also the strengthening of society itself and the generation of economic growth based on productivity, competitiveness, equity and environmental sustainability. Consequently, the NGP pursues the creation of an efficient and effective administration that satisfies the real needs of citizens at the lowest possible cost, favoring the introduction of competition mechanisms, user choice, and the development of higher quality services. All this action is based on control systems that allow full transparency of processes, plans and results, so that on the one hand, the election system is improved, and on the other hand, citizen participation is favored.

    The main trajectories of these transformations can be grouped as follows:
    - Organizational Structural. Adopting measures that have shifted the boundaries between the State, the market, civil society and citizenship, transferring public management responsibilities to other spheres, including measures such as privatization, contractualization, decentralization, devolution and deregulation.
    - Regulatory and cultural rationalization. Introduction of new patterns of action and behavior that have led to the design of a new public operating system, concretized in the reform of public employment, budgetary finance and deregulation, including administrative simplification, the improvement of management and control tools through the introduction of private management techniques, and technological innovation aimed at digital government.
    - Transparency of public administration. Openness and citizen access to public information such as plans and budgets, etc., and incorporation of the administered in the public decision-making process, encouraging citizen participation. 

    The Central American Public Administration has undertaken efforts within the framework of the institutionalization of the NGP. Some of the results that have been obtained as a result of the advances in the implementation of this new trend of modernization of the Public Administration, feed this edition of the Central American Journal of Public Administration, which we are pleased to offer today to the academic and professional community of the Region.

     

  • Professionalization of the Civil Service
    No. 54-55 (2008)

    In the mid-twentieth century, Central America considered it pertinent to organize the management of human resources at the service of governments, instituting regulations, structures and programs that would make it possible to create an institutional framework aimed at responding to social demands with efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness, such that in all the member countries of the Civil Service Forum of the Central American Isthmus, Panama and the Dominican Republic, there are bodies in charge of the Civil Service, the Civil Service, the Administrative Career and/or Human Resources Management, with different degrees of progress and different hierarchical levels.

    Currently, with the need to strengthen "good governance", the efforts to increase institutional capacity and productivity and the response to citizen demand with quality, the importance of the professionalization of the civil service has been taken up again, not only by the reform and modernization of the State in general, but by the public servants themselves and civil society in particular, since there are a number of reasons to ponder the relevance of this body of civil servants in national and sustainable development. Thus, the training of public servants is today a current and permanent issue on the agenda of public administration and especially of the Central American Institute of Public Administration, ICAP.

    For democratic governance, the career or professionalized Civil Service represents not only an expression of governmental institutionality, but also a deepening of the process of building democracy, strengthening both the managerial capacity of the different areas of public administration and their decentralized execution. On the other hand, a systematic improvement in the management and development of public servants increases productivity in the public sector, contributing to the action of governance. 

    Notwithstanding the above, the member countries that are part of this Forum face some challenges in order to make progress in the creation of a professional career service, which I will briefly mention below:
    a) To comprehensively articulate the professional career service for the entire public administration.
    b) To guarantee that in the transition due to the change of power, the experience and knowledge of the personnel will be taken advantage of, and that the administrative operation will not be interrupted, forgetting the traditional practice of the old political interference.
    c) To provide the citizen with certainty and credibility with respect to the exercise of the public function.
    d) To improve government action, both in terms of coverage and quality of the goods and services provided.

     

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